Category Archives: Volunteering

Mashable/Social Media: Fundraising is a key component for most social good campaigns and projects. Thanks to the the Internet and the social web, raising money for a non-profit, community project or charitable organization or relief effort is easier than ever before…

If you have an idea or a cause that you want to bring awareness to and raise funds around, there are lots of great online tools to help get you started… Read more

14 June is World Blood Donor Day: a special day dedicated to celebrating and thanking voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. The O Project supports blood donation as part of its Life after Death initiative.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the focal point for International Volunteer Day (IVD), and provides many resources on its World Volunteer Web to help both volunteers and voluntary organisations make the most of the Day.

Included is an IVD Tool-kit with resources organisations can use to customise their own IVD publications and media relations. Organisations are invited to report their IVD activities to the UNV via the World Volunteer Web, so that these activities can be promoted on the web to UNV’s global audience.

In its 2001 resolution, the United Nations General Assembly called on “governments, with the active support of the media, civil society and the private sector, to observe 5 December, IVD, and to include activities focused on following-up on the achievements of IYV”.

Today is ‘CSV Make a Difference Day’, the UK’s biggest day of volunteering in the community. It encourages people to try volunteering for one day, giving their time rather than money to make a positive contribution to their local areas.

Over 120,000 volunteers took part in 4,000 innovative activities across the UK for CSV Make a Difference Day 2006. Individuals turned wasteland into playgrounds, teddies were knitted for hospitals, students arranged tea parties for older people, sports clubs held training days for disabled people, and charities used the day to help recruit new volunteers!

Now in its 12th year, CSV Make a Difference Day hopes again to involve over 120,000 volunteers in more than 5,000 activities this October.

20 June is World Refugee Day. Around this date activities in support of refugees will take place all over Europe with demonstrations, conferences, festivals and exhibitions organised.Under the banner ‘different pasts, shared future,’ Refugee Week runs from June 19 until June 25 2006 and is a UK-wide programme of events celebrating the contribution of refugees to the UK that aims to encourage better understanding between communities.

Is your humanist group doing anything to support the week? If so email me at info@oproject.co.uk

The Observer reports that the Darra Singh, the Chair of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (the body created by Tony Blair after the 7 July bombings in 2005 to promote more unity) as saying ‘We need to have a debate about the possibility of a national community service – and we should not be afraid of asking whether this should be compulsory.’

“Singh said that, having spoken to hundreds of people over the past years and listened to the views of many groups, he would like to take the idea further and see ‘a communities week that puts the local (community) centre stage – marking what makes our area unique’.”